


Not So Bad

by valinorbound



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Awesome Tosh, Cardiff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, The Hub (Torchwood), janto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 17:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12392394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valinorbound/pseuds/valinorbound
Summary: Tosh contemplates her life at Torchwood.





	Not So Bad

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Torchwood fanfiction I wrote for my friend's birthday. Set between Something Borrowed and Adam, when Gwen is away.  
> Warnings: Mild violence, but only in flashbacks.  
> Pairings: Janto, could be Towen.  
> Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.
> 
> Enjoy and please review :)

It should have been cold, but for a reason unknown, it wasn't.

The faint pattering of rain could be heard if she strained her ears. She could picture the scene above her, out in the open air. People walking past, heads bowed against the downpour, clutching coats to their shivering frames as hurried feet slapped the sodden pavement.  
The harbour would be empty, swollen drops creating ripples on the water which would blend into the waves. The raindrops would run down the edges of the monument and come cascading through the grate and into the pool so far below.  
She could hear that too.  
That and the cries of a pterodactyl.

Those people would be heading home, to somewhere warm - food, a family...

That thought only made her ungrateful of what she had, so Toshiko Sato opened her eyes.

The source of heat was in fact not as unknown as previously thought. It came from a small, tennis ball-sized orb which hung a foot above the ground, suspended in mid-air by some unexplainable force.  
It gave a gentle glow with a dull yet calming hum, and an amount of heat that was just perfect. The energy which it used was still a mystery, and it stubbornly refused to move, which was why every current member of Torchwood three was sat on the floor by the sofa above the autopsy bay.

The calm atmosphere did not reflect what they had gone through to obtain the orb.

A high-pitched screeching floods her ears and she cowers back, until she feels a warm hand on hers and together they run...

The aliens had been slightly too fond of it.

"This is your last warning!"  
Guns blazing, seven-foot scaled beasts roaring, blood thumping against her eardrums...

When she said all members, it was all bar one. Gwen was on her sickeningly normal honeymoon. Thank the Lord.

She and Owen held machinery which was trying and failing to recognise a power source.  
Ianto had his back resting on the edge of the sofa, Jack had his back resting on Ianto.  
Jack had died that day.

His screams fill the air. Blood erupts from his nose and mouth as he crumples to the ground, a metal shard protruding from his sternum - the rain dilutes his blood and it pours in pink tendrils across the concrete...

She shook the image from her head and reminded herself for the thousandth time that he was fine, he couldn't die, he was here and showed no signs of pain - except his hand discreetly holding Ianto's in a vice-like grip.

Tosh wondered briefly why her life was like this.  
Why she caught aliens.  
Why she watched a best friend die.  
Why she loved her life in secrecy.  
Why she could never see her family again.  
Why she had fallen in love with an alien.  
Why her time on this Earth was guaranteed to be shortened.  
Why the restraints of normality were crumbling around her.

Her gaze glided over her companions, all of whom were staring intently at the orb. She knew that none of them were thinking about it - they all had that faraway look of wanting to be somewhere else.

Today was the kind of day that made you want to curl up in a blanket and drink hot chocolate, with the rain thudding on the roof.  
But no, she was kneeling on a tiled floor trying to identify an energy signature, attempting to ignore both Owen's proximity and Jack's barely contained shivers.  
And the half-dissected alien lying on the table in the autopsy bay, just on the edge of her line of sight.

Owens request for coffee had been immediately refused by Ianto, so he had settled for a packet of Jelly Babies as they took readings from the orb.

"Jack...", the doctor moaned. No, whined was a more appropriate word.

"What?"

"Do we all have to do this? 'Cause I don't understand a word Tosh's on about -"

So bloody useless. "Well if you had actually listened when I..."

"Hey," Jack cut in. "You don't have to. Carry on cutting up that thing, and if you find out where the shard was propelled from let me know."

"How do you know it wasn't from a weapon?"

"We couldn't find one."

"Well it's kind of impossible to find something - if it was propelled by the body - when it's all too... mushed up..."

The flicker of a grin sparked on Jack's pale lips.  
"Is this another one of those situations, Doctor? Remember, The foot bone's connected to the, leg bone -"  
He was cut off with a laugh as Owen threw a Jelly Baby at him.

Their laughs gave off a better warmth than the orb had.  
The four of them were messed up and broken, but maybe they could all be broken together.  
Life didn't have to be good. And it wasn't. But the support, the friendship, everything about them was.

Tosh, forgetting the orb for a while, studied the scene in front of her. And she thought then, as Ianto tried to get Myfanwy to catch the Jelly Baby in her mouth, that life really wasn't so bad.


End file.
